For when God made promise to Abraham, because He could swear by no greater, He sware by Himself, saying,
“Surely blessing I will bless thee, and multiplying I will multiply thee.”
And so, after he had patiently endured, he obtained the promise. For men verily swear by the greater: and an oath for confirmation is to them an end of all strife. Wherein God, willing more abundantly to shew unto the heirs of promise the immutability of His counsel, confirmed it by an oath: that by two immutable things, in which it was impossible for God to lie, we might have a strong consolation, who have fled for refuge to lay hold upon the hope set before us: which we have as an anchor of the soul, both sure and stedfast, and which entereth into that within the veil; whither the forerunner is for us entered, even Jesus, made an High Priest for ever after the order of Melchisedec.
Hebrews 6:13-20
Soul
What Is It Worth?
Then said Jesus unto His disciples,
“If any will come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me. For whosoever will save his life shall lose it: and whosoever will lose his life for My sake shall find it. For what is a man profited, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul? Or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul? For the Son of Man shall come in the glory of His Father with His angels; and then He shall reward every man according to his works.
Verily I say unto you, There be some standing here, which shall not taste of death, till they see the Son of Man coming in His kingdom.” Matthew 16:24-28
The Thirsty Soul
“As the hart panteth after the water brooks, so panteth my soul after thee, O God. My soul thirsteth for God, for the living God. When shall I come and appear before God?
My tears have been my meat day and night, while they continually say unto me, Where is thy God?
When I remember these things, I pour out my soul in me: for I had gone with the multitude, I went with them to the house of God, with the voice of joy and praise, with a multitude that kept holyday. Why art thou cast down, O my soul? and why art thou disquieted in me? Hope thou in God: for I shall yet praise Him for the help of His countenance.” Psalm 42:1-5 (KJB)
The Heart’s Desire, Prayer for…
“Brethren, my heart’s desire and prayer to God for Israel is, that they might be saved.” Romans 10:1 (KJB)
The apostle Paul was a Jew. He was a Hebrew, in fact calling himself, “…An Hebrew of the Hebrews…” (Philippians 3:5), and he spent his early ministry endeavoring to win the Jewish people to the Messiah Jesus. He nearly lost his life a few times doing so.
In Romans 9 – 11 we see just how much Paul loves his people it is almost a final plea for them to repent, to turn to the One who is their Redeemer, before it is turned over completely to the Gentiles for the age.
I have a question for myself this morning. Is my heart’s desire, and prayer for my people so powerful, so strong that I would risk my life, my all, my living for a lost soul? I desire, I strongly desire to see a soul come to faith in Jesus Christ.
Jeremiah the prophet said,
“Oh that my head were waters, and mine eyes a fountain of tears, that I might weep day and night for the slain of the daughter of my people!” Jeremiah 9:1
God has given me what I need to lead a lost, condemned, dying man, or woman to Jesus. By the power of His Spirit in me I can and will do it.
Longing for the Redemption of the Body
“For we know that the whole creation groaneth and travaileth in pain together until now. And not only they, but ourselves also, which have the firstfruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting for the adoption, the redemption of our body.” Romans 8:22-23 (KJB)
Only a believer, a born again Christian who is knowledgeable of Jesus Christ, our sin, and the word of God could begin to understand these verses.
The soul of the Christian man, or woman is redeemed by the blood of the Lamb; the Lord Jesus Christ. We are made new in spirit by the power of the Holy Spirit who comes to live within us, changing us, making us more and more into the image of Christ Jesus.
With our soul redeemed, and the presence of the Holy Spirit; Christ in us; then we have the hope of eternal life for our bodies as well. Even when these bodies die, the believer’s body will be raised a new body (1 Corinthians 15:35-57).
With the sin of man came also chaos in the rest of the created order. Earthquakes, storms, floods, hurricanes, tornadoes, tidal waves, savage animals; you get the picture. Sickness, and disease came on mankind. The worst part of sin was there was no more fellowship with God; no relationship with God.
God sent His Son Jesus to redeem man to Himself. The soul of man, through faith in Christ Jesus and His finished work on the cross, is redeemed unto God. Our body in the meanwhile is longing for the redemption of the body. That will be complete when our bodies are made new at the resurrection of the Just. Every Christian has a great desire for this; looks forward to it; longs in groans even for it. How about you?
Verse 22 even tells us that “the whole creation groans” and is groaning for redemption. One day all of creation will be made new because of the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ the Son of God, God the Son.
Let me close with commentary from the Jamieson, Fausset, and Brown Commentary…
For we know that the whole creation groaneth and travaileth in pain together until now — If for man’s sake alone the earth was cursed, it cannot surprise us that it should share in his recovery. And if so, to represent it as sympathizing with man’s miseries, and as looking forward to his complete redemption as the period of its own emancipation from its present sin-blighted condition, is a beautiful thought, and in harmony with the general teaching of Scripture on the subject. (See on 2Pe_3:13)
What do You Do?
What do you do when you are on your way to work, discouraged, down, and basically feeling like you have made a wreck of your life? You are listening to a great Christian radio station, and a program called “Unshackled”.
What do you do when you hear the voice of God say in your heart, soul, mind, and spirit, “I have loved you with an everlasting love”? What do you do? To hear the voice of God speak His word in your heart will pick you up and set your feet on the Rock.
Those words, “I have loved you with an everlasting love” are the words of Scripture (Jeremiah 31:3), and spoken through the prophet to the people of God in the Old Testament. When God speaks we must listen.
What do you do?
Christmas Day Seventy and Eight
Blessed Lord’s Day.
What do I want for Christmas today?
I want my heart, soul, mind and body to be prepared to enter the presence of God with the Church in worshiping our Lord God, and Savior Jesus Christ; and I want the Church to have their like being joining with me in worshiping Him.
He is coming again. Are you prepared to meet God?
“But as the days of Noah were, so shall also the coming of the Son of Man be. For as in the days that were before the flood they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noah entered into the ark, and knew not until the flood came, and took them all away; so shall also the coming of the Son of Man be.” Matthew 24:37-39 (KJV)
Christmas Day Eighty and Six
What do I want for Christmas today?
My wife and I have guests in our home today. Our oldest grandson Jonathan, and his sister Caitlyn, and some of their friends came down to our house last night to spend the night celebrating their Birthdays which was a few days ago. They had a party in Springfield last night, then came here to camp out in our backyard. Their mother [Charity]; our daughter; also brought a friend with her to help get all the girls here.
So what do I want for Christmas today? I want Jonathan to keep growing in the Lord Jesus Christ, to meet a godly Christian girl – which I think he already has – and grows deeper in love with Jesus through the Word, and deeper in love with the one who will be his wife; to love God with all his heart, soul, mind and strength; and to love his neighbor as himself.
For Caitlyn; that she too continue to grow in her love for Jesus, and His word; to one day find the godly Christian young man of her dreams, grow more in love with Jesus, and her husband to be; and to love God with all her heart, soul, mind and strength, and to love her neighbor as herself…
…And for those who are here with them as well.
Christmas Day 120
119 more “Christmas Day” posts. Are you glad.
What do I want for Christmas today?
I want to have a clear heart, mind, and a clean heart and mind for living the life that will honor and glorify my God and Savior Jesus Christ; today especially since this is the Lord’s Day.
Day Two Hundred Sixty and Seven
What do I want for Christmas?
On this LORD’S Day I want the Word of God to come into my heart, my soul, my mind with the power of the Spirit of God; to do the work God has sent it with His Spirit to perform in me and the people who will hear it; and I want us to see what God can do when His redeemed people hear, and yield to His Word and His way and His will.
Do all things without murmurings and disputings: that ye may be blameless and harmless, the sons of God, without rebuke, in the midst of a crooked and perverse nation, among whom ye shine as lights in the world; holding forth the word of life; that I may rejoice in the day of Christ, that I have not run in vain, neither laboured in vain.” Philippians 2:14-16 (KJV)
Day Three Hundred and Sixteen
What do I want for Christmas?
On this, another LORD’S Day, I want the “Meeting House” where I worship and the Church gathers called Shiloah Baptist Church; and all Christ centered, Bible believing, Churches to love the Lord Jesus with all our hearts, all our souls, all our minds and with all our strength; to hear the word of God, to pray diligently, and believe without wavering that the answers for the world’s problems is found solely through the cross of Jesus Christ.
The king’s heart is in the hand of the Lord, Like the rivers of water; He turns it wherever He wishes.” Proverbs 21:1 (NKJV)
Day Three Hundred and Seventeen
What do I want for Christmas?
I want to love God with all my heart, all my mind, all my soul, and with all my strength; and want that for you too.
See Exodus 20:1-11
The first of all the commandments is: ‘Hear, O Israel, the LORD our God, the LORD is one. And you shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength.” Mark 12:29-30 (NKJV)
Day Three hundred Forty Six
What do I want for Christmas?
I want family, friends, and neighbors to prosper and be in good health; even as they prosper in their spiritual lives.
“Beloved, I pray that you may prosper in all things and be in health, just as your soul prospers.” 2 John 1:2 (NKJV)
Why Christmas; After Christmas?
It seems every December people start talking about Christmas, and the “Christmas spirit”. My thoughts this Christmas season was this,
If I am a follower of Jesus Christ, and if you are a follower of Jesus Christ, and wear the name “Christian”, then shouldn’t I [we] be living with that ‘Christmas spirit’ every day?
So I determined to see what the mind and heart of Christ would be for each day from the first day following Christmas 2015 until Christmas 2016 (providing the Lord wills that I live that long, or the rapture does not occur).
I pray they will lead me to follow Jesus even more faithfully in the year ahead. I also pray that for you and all who may read these pieces.
God’s Requirements
“And now, Israel, what doth the LORD thy God require of thee, but to fear the LORD thy God, to walk in all His ways, and to love Him, and to serve the LORD thy God with all thy heart and with all thy soul, to keep the commandments of the LORD, and His statutes, which I command thee this day for thy good? Behold, the heaven and the heaven of heavens is the LORD’S thy God, the earth also, with all that therein is.” Deuteronomy 10:12-14 (KJV)
You, nor myself can meet these requirements. We have no heart for God, except by God’s grace He give it to us.
This is one of the reasons we so need grace. When we by grace receive the gift of the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus Christ, then we have a heart to fear the LORD, to walk in His ways, and love Him. Without a changed heart through the work of Jesus Christ there is no hope of loving God.
If you have no heart for these things, then, it is due to the fact of you walking in darkness of sin, not in the light of Christ. Call on Him now; believe Him, trust Him with your heart, your mind, your soul, and your strength.
Here are a couple of verses that come to my mind as I read the above text:
“He hath shewed thee, O man, what is good; and what doth the LORD require of thee, but to do justly, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with thy God?” Micah 6:8
Follow the link of Psalm 24 for a few more thoughts.
The Blood of Cleansing
“For the life of the flesh is in the blood: and I have given it to you upon the altar to make an atonement for your souls: for it is the blood that maketh an atonement for the soul.” Leviticus 17:11 (KJV)
No flesh lives without blood courses through the veins of that flesh. Blood is the source of the human life and the life of other fleshly beings. Therefore, it is commanded by God that we do not eat the blood of the flesh, because it is the blood that makes atonement for the soul.
“Atonement” is the bringing together of two beings. In our case, because of mankind’s sin we are born into this world separated from our Creator. Since He desires fellowship, and worship from His crowning achievement, then, there must be something done to bring us together. Atonement is the answer.
Atonement is achieved by the shedding of blood. Notice if you will At-one-ment; and by this we can see God’s desired affect is done – making the creature man and God one with one another. This was the prayer of Jesus,
“That they all may be one; as Thou, Father, art in Me, and I in Thee, that they also may be one in Us: that the world may believe that Thou hast sent Me.” John 17:21 (KJV)
I do not mean making man God, but making us in agreement with God. God is still completely God, the only God; and we are in complete agreement with that.
It was ultimately the blood of Jesus Christ that was shed for the sins of mankind, redeeming us, atoning our sins; bringing us into full agreement with God.
In Hebrews we read,
“And almost all things are by the law purged with blood; and without shedding of blood is no remission.” Hebrews 9:22 (KJV)
Have you been redeemed by the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ? There is no forgiveness with God except by His blood.
Over Our Soul
“If it had not been the LORD who was on our side, now may Israel say; If it had not been the LORD who was on our side, when men rose up against us: Then they had swallowed us up quick, when their wrath was kindled against us: Then the waters had overwhelmed us, the stream had gone over our soul: Then the proud waters had gone over our soul.” Psalm 124:1-5 (KJV)
The LORD that is Jehovah is on our side when we are overwhelmed; when it seems that life is too much to bear.
When it seems that the world has turned against me, then, I know that the LORD is by me, with me, and in me. The thing is; I am also on His side. I cannot defend God; nor does He need or depend on any defense I might have for Him.
Prideful and haughty people may rise against us; the storms and horrible events of life may be kindled against us; the flooding events may overwhelm us; “If it had not been the LORD who was [and is] on our side…”
Save Me
“Save me, O God; for the waters are come in unto my soul.” Psalm 69:1 (KJV)
As Peter stepped out of the boat, in a storm, to walk on the water to Jesus; he began to sink. His words as he was going down were “Lord, save me” (Matthew 14:30). Have you ever cried out to Him, “Lord, save me”?
I never make a secret of the fact that I enjoy reading the preachers of old. Many of them like Spurgeon, Edwards, Gill, Henry, and Wesley are ones that I am blessed in reading. Most of the time I post the commentary of Spurgeon; and I do so today from The Treasury of David.
“Save me, O God.” “He saved others, himself he cannot save.” With strong cryings and tears he offered up prayers and supplications unto him that was able to save him from death, and was heard in that he feared (Heb_5:7). Thus David had prayed, and here his Son and Lord utters the same cry. This is the second Psalm which begins with a “Save me, O God,” and the former (Psa_54:1-7) is but a short summary of this more lengthened complaint. It is remarkable that such a scene of woe should be presented to us immediately after the jubilant ascension hymn of the last Psalm, but this only shows how interwoven are the glories and the sorrows of our ever-blessed Redeemer. The head which now is crowned with glory is the same which wore the thorns; he to whom we pray, “Save us, O God,” is the selfsame person who cried, “Save me, O God.” “For the waters are come in unto my soul.” Sorrows, deep, abounding, deadly, had penetrated his inner nature. Bodily anguish is not his first complaint; he begins not with the gall which embittered his lips, but with the mighty griefs which broke into his heart. All the sea outside a vessel is less to be feared than that which finds its way into the hold. A wounded spirit who can bear. Our Lord in this verse is seen before us as a Jonah, crying, “The waters compassed me about, even to the soul.” He was doing business for us on the great waters, at his Father’s command; the stormy wind was lifting up the waves thereof, and he went down to the depths till his soul was melted because of trouble. In all this he has sympathy with us, and is able to succour us when we, like Peter, beginning to sink, cry to him, “Lord, save, or we perish.”
from THE TREASURY OF DAVID
Jesus is our salvation. When have you cried to Him for eternal salvation? If you have not, then, do so now.
Words for Christian Living 061313
“For this is the will of God, even your sanctification, that ye should abstain from fornication: that every one of you should know how to possess his vessel in sanctification and honour; not in the lust of concupiscence, even as the Gentiles which know not God: that no man go beyond and defraud his brother in any matter: because that the Lord is the avenger of all such, as we also have forewarned you and testified.” 1 Thessalonians 4:3-6 (KJV)
Sometimes it seems so hard to know the “Will of God”; yet it is given to us in God’s written Word. Many Christians spend their time “Searching for the will of God”. Is it God’s will for me to be a missionary, go to Africa, go to Russia, go to the jungles of the Amazon? The problem is we spend our time searching and it is right before us in black, red and white.
Notice Paul’s words above, and all this instruction can be summed up with Jesus’s words quoting the Old Testament,
“…Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind, and with all thy strength: this is the first commandment.” Mark 12:30
and He went on and said,
“Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. There is none other commandment greater than these.” Mark 12:31 (KJV)
If we are not doing the will of God at home, in our daily labors, in our recreation, in all our daily activities; God’s will will not be found in Africa, Russia, or the Amazon. God’s will is as close as your heart and the Word of God. Let us commit ourselves to doing the will of God. The search is over.
-Tim A. Blankenship
The Power Of The Ten Commandments
“And one of the scribes came, and having heard them reasoning together, and perceiving that he had answered them well, asked him, Which is the first commandment of all?
And Jesus answered him, The first of all the commandments is, Hear, O Israel; The Lord our God is one Lord: And thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind, and with all thy strength: this is the first commandment. And the second is like, namely this, Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. There is none other commandment greater than these.
And the scribe said unto him, Well, Master, thou hast said the truth: for there is one God; and there is none other but he: And to love him with all the heart and with all the understanding, and with all the soul, and with all the strength, and to love his neighbor as himself, is more than all whole burnt offerings and sacrifices.
And when Jesus saw that he answered discreetly he said unto him, Thou art not far from the kingdom of God. And no man after that durst ask him any question.” Mark 12:28-34 (KJV)
THE POWER OF THE TEN COMMANDMENTS
Jesus is asked by a scribe, “Which is the greatest commandment?” Jesus’ answer is one which shortens the whole of the Ten Commandments into two short commands. “Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, with all thy soul, with all thy mind, and with all thy strength…”. I have done a study of the Ten Commandments and find some very amazing thoughts of the first four commandments God gave us. The first four Commandments have to do with mankind’s relationship with God. In the first Commandment the “Heart” can have no other gods – there can be only one. In the second, the “Soul” of man cannot unite with other god’s by building an image – we are made in God’s image, not He in ours – thus the soul must be knit only to God. The third, the “Mind” of man must not think thoughts that make the mouth say vain things of God, or curse His name. In the fourth, we need “Strength” so God commanded a day of rest and so that we could devote one whole day for worshipping Him and renewing our physical and spiritual “Strength”. Just as a means of summing up these matters, we must come to the conclusion that there is no place in man’s heart and life for any other god, but the God who created all things, seen and unseen.
On the matter of the second commandment which Jesus gave, “Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself…” we see that the final six of the Ten Commandments have to do with mankind’s relationship to his/her fellowman. From one’s mother and father, marital faithfulness, preciousness of life, sacred ownership, speaking of others, and the possessions and being of your neighbor.
The scribe acknowledges that there is no greater law than these; to love God with all the heart, soul, mind and strength is better than “whole burnt offerings and sacrifices”. This man was a wise man, and even Jesus tells him, “You are not far from the kingdom of God”. Not by keeping commandments is one saved, but in knowing and loving God, and only God can give that to us.
For a list of other studies on the Ten Commandments you may follow this list.
-Tim A. Blankenship
The Fire and Hammer 